Ignore Anyaoku’s call for new constitution, ex-presidential candidate tells Tinubu

A former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Dumebi Kachikwu, has urged President Bola Tinubu not to concede to calls by a former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, and other elder statesmen in the country to change the 1999 Constitution.

Kachikwu made the appeal at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday.

His plea comes barely 24 hours after The Patriots, a group led by Anyaoku, met with Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa.

Anyaoku, who addressed State House correspondents after Friday’s meeting, begged the president to forward an executive bill to the National Assembly to legislate on a national referendum that will approve a draft for a ‘pluralistic constitution.’

He said that a 109-member constituent assembly should be mandated to produce the draft constitution to be subjected to a referendum.

But Kachikwu disagreed, arguing that the country does not need a new constitution when the old one has not been fully exhausted and can be amended where necessary.

He said, “This is what a lot of people from the old order always say. Our biggest problem is that we have not done enough with the current constitution available to us. There is so much we can do. Every year or in every legislative agenda, they always introduce constitutional amendments and in more cases than one, we have seen where the constitution has been amended.

“Whatever we have to do with our constitution, let us take it through that channel. But the first job of our president is to understand that most Nigerians don’t believe we have a country or that we are one people. It is what he must start selling so that when we see the green-white-green of our flag, we see it as meaning the same thing to us. He needs to start selling a charter and a new order that speaks to us as a people and brings us together.

“It is not a change of (national) anthem that is our problem. The problem is that the anthem must resonate and mean something to us. We need to start talking about solutions. In this country, we are big on the blame game, big on identifying problems but low on proffering solutions. Why? Solutions are logical and not emotionally appealing. We also can’t score political points with solutions.”